Superintendent appointed in Tiverton

Tuesday

May 8, 2018 at 10:44 PMMay 8, 2018 at 10:44 PM

Marcia Pobzeznik Daily News staff writer

TIVERTON — Peter Sanchioni of Millis, Massachusetts, who was appointed Tuesday night to be Tiverton’s new superintendent of schools, said he expects to help enhance best educational practices in a district that is “on the precipice of being great.”

He is retiring as superintendent from the 5,000-student, 700-staff school system with a $70 million budget in Natick, Massachusetts, where he has spent the past 10 years. He was previously superintendent from 2005 to 2008 in Millis, with 1,300 students, and was principal in several districts beginning in 1995. He began his educational career as an elementary school teacher in 1983. He holds a Ph.D. and has a list of professional achievements, including awards for bullying prevention and intervention, and is an adjunct professor at several local universities and colleges.

He will now head the Tiverton school system that has fewer than 2,000 students and 180 staff members.

The School Committee voted unanimously to appoint him out of a field of more than 20 candidates.

“He’s well qualified and he gets Tiverton,” School Committee Chairman Jerome Larkin said, “and he’s someone I think can really bring us places.”

Sanchioni will be paid a starting salary of $160,000, School Committeewoman Deborah Pallasch said.

Larkin refused to release the contract to the press after the vote to appoint Sanchino and accept his contract Tuesday night, saying that everyone would be able to see it when it is posted on the school department’s website today.

The district, for the first time, will have two superintendents for a year.

William Rearick, who has been superintendent for the last 14 years, signed a separation agreement with the school committee last July that sets his contract end date at June 30, 2019.

Larkin said details of the transition are still being worked out.

The committee members, asked separately during a small reception for Sanchioni in the library following the vote Tuesday night, lauded him.

“During interviews his answers were superlative,” School Committee Vice Chairwoman Sally Black said, “and he seems to connect with what we are looking for, someone who is present in the community and not just coming but wants to be there,” she said. “His experience he’ll transfer here with respect to the staff, and bring us to the top in every way.”

“He is a visionary,” Pallasch said. “He’s going to be able to see what we need for our kids and help us get there and use our staff to get us there. He spoke a lot about finding the superstars” among the staff. “He just blew us away,” she said, ‘and we had an amazing pool of candidates.”

mpobzeznik@newportri.com

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.